Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

Today, I feel almost as right as rain. What I mean is, I am as good as I am going to be, I suppose. This lack of energy is more annoying than anything else.

Did I have CoVid19? As I have always said, “don’t know, don’t care.” It makes no difference to me/us, if I did, or did not. We did not go out of the apartment, once we came home from Los Altos, and did not come in contact with anyone while I was “contagious”. I feel confident that it was my newly acquired Spring “something”. Allergies? Who knows. Go to the doctor? Pashaw, I say. I am a nurse; we do not go to the doctor before being on deaths door. I still had a bit of distance before coming to that door.

Things need doing, however, so I do them. A Red Bull™ helps, for sure, but this lack of sleep is for the proverbial birds. I cannot seem to get into a “deep” REM sleep until almost dawn, and then, only for about two hours. If I take a Benadryl at night, to help me sleep, I have, what Ivan and I call a Benadryl hangover; it makes me sleepy most of the next morning.

The fever, chills, coughing, headache, and diarrhea are all a bad memory now. I am up, and on to other things. Seize the day – Carpe Diem, and all of that. So, I am.

There is a starter to feed; done. There are plants to tend to; done. There is coffee to be drank; doing. Oh, I also have pig head parts, (gross), on a simmer, in my Instant Pot. I am making a pork stock, to be frozen for upcoming Ramen dishes. I have never made a pork stock before, but I cannot tell you how glad I am that it is in the IP. It stinks!

I am almost through watching a course, online, on how to cook with the items you have on hand; either in your pantry, cupboards, fridge, or freezer. I have always wanted to cook like that, but had no idea how to adapt different foods to make different flavor combinations.

To some people, this comes easily; not to me. If I have a recipe to follow, I follow it; to the letter. If I do not have an ingredient I, 1) go to the store to get it, 2) omit it as if is was not really necessary, or, 3) not make the food altogether. Options two, and three, are the norm for me; I have never even considered substitution. What, and how, would I substitute something for, say, a carrot?

Since taking this course, I feel quite empowered to do the very thing. The other day, as an example, I was making Cream of Poblano soup, but did not have any carrots. The day before, however, I had taken the shriveling red, and yellow bell peppers, and two spoiling tomatoes from the bin in the fridge, along with a centuries old onion, in the vegetable caddy, on the counter, cut them all up, and roasted them; just like I was shown in the course. (Of course I cut off the bad spots, and threw those parts away.)

Normally, I would have chucked them all in the compost bucket, and felt shamed. Now, I have two containers in the fridge with beautifully roasted vegetables, ready at a moments notice, to be used in whatever dish I feel requires their addition.

So, when I did not have the required carrot, for the soup, I used about a half cup of the roasted vegetables; the soup was delicious. Substitutions, for me, are now a complete game changer. This may not be a big deal for you, but for me, mind blowing, life changing; Carpe Diem!

Now, if only I could sleep.

Please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: Happy birthday to my b-i-l, Moises, and my deceased grandfather, Henry W. Anderson, (Pop).

You may be interested to know that ninety five percent of the plants we have are still thriving. Yes, I have managed to “over love” a few, but, for the most part, they survive.

I found an app called Plantin, that helps me with the watering schedule. Finally, something that I can input all of the plants we have, and it notifies me when they need to be watered. I do believe this will help me learn their schedules on my own; maybe; after loads of time. Hopefully.

Thus far, it has kept me from doing my usual “you look like you need just a little water; it won’t hurt you” routine. I have so many plants now that I cannot remember which ones want water, and which ones do not. The app was about ten bucks for a year; well, heck, that has already paid for itself in the plants it has saved from my well-intentioned clutches.

Another thing I discovered was that the sun has changed its trajectory quite a bit since March, when I first began obtaining the “jungle”. The windows I thought would give them the most sun, have become only bright indirect sun light. That is fine; coming through the window covering seems to give the light a little boost without the heat. Though, it is only May, and the heat is coming, it is not too hot at present.

The other thing I learned was, in the evening, when the sun lowers significantly, I can turn on the lights at the West end of the living room, and, in the spare bedroom, (someday to become our office), and the plants respond as if it was a weaker version of the sun. How neat is that?!

Many of the plants I bought said they were capable of growing in “low light”, however, they do not thrive in the lower light. They are, now, growing nicely with the additional light in the evenings. Yay.

It seems like things will get better over time. We will be patient, and see. The plants, now, that do not make it, will probably not be replaced. I need to learn, for now, how to take care of what we already have, and be grateful for them.

I am.

Please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Just wanted to let you know, any of you that are interested, that I am still amongst the living.

And, only one kilo down!!! What is up with that? Six days of continuous diarrhea, and, I am only down one kilo? In the silver lining, I weight less than I have in quite some time. Not the way I want to lose weight, however.

Yesterday, after I started taking the Loperamida, (Lomotil), I began to come back to the living. What a trial that was. It has been two years since I had the exact same thing happen.

We were living at Juan’s house, and, Paty was in Saltillo, visiting her son. I had forgotten to disinfect the cilantro, and spent the next week in bed, and, in the bathroom. When she got home, on my sixth day of hell, she bought me the meds. I needed, and I lived. This time, two years later, it was Ivan that contacted Jesús to buy the meds., and I am, once again, alive.

I feel like a limp noodle, but will regain my energy little by little. Until then, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: Even better than all of that is that today Ivan and I are celebrating forty five years of marriage; fifty one having known each other. Glad to still be living; especially here, with him.

We are back from four wonderful days, and, nights, in the beautiful city of Los Altos, in the state of Veracruz.

I cannot breathe through my nose. I have gotten some sort of bug; while we were there, I was fine; on the way home, I was fine. Now, I cannot breath through my nose. What the heck?

We had a bit of horseradish sauce left over from shrimp dips, or some such thing, so I tried eating a teaspoonful of that. It only relieved the stuffiness temporarily. On to the Benadryl. We shall see if that works. (I was going to order more horseradish, as the sauce, itself, is about six dollars for a six ounce bottle; it will cost eighty two dollars for shipping and handling. Hahahaha! NO!)

If not, I will have to wait until tomorrow, and ask Jesús to run to the pharmacy for a decongestant. Hopefully, he has a minute to do that. Did I mention that I cannot breathe through my nose?

It does not help that my CPAP will not break through the stuffiness, either. I ended up breathing through my mouth. Not to mention the coughing, the fever, and chills. Life, today, is not a lot of fun. There is always tomorrow.

One fun thing that did happen today; I received another batch of plants. There are twelve different herbs; a large ZZ plant, (Zamioculcas zamiifolia), which, eventually, I will propagate into multiple new plants; a dumb cane, (Dieffenbachia); a dragon tree, (Dracaena Marginata, also to be propagated); and, lastly, a zebra plant, (Calathea Zebrina). I will not buy any more plants, for awhile.

The herbs are basil, chives, cilantro, dill, epazote, lavender, two different types of mint, rosemary, parsley, oregano, and thyme. These, I am going to plant in two, separate, containers so I can put them in our bedroom, either on the floor, or on the bed. The window has a southern exposure, and should provide the light they need throughout the day. Again, we shall see.

While in LA, I was given cuttings of several different plants, most from Liz’ mom, Alicia; a donkey tail, (Sedieveria “Harry Butterfield”); a tiny Tugela cliff-kalanchoe, (Kalanchoe longiflora); several cuttings of a Jade plant, (Crassula Ovata); a small succulent called a Lace aloe, (Aristaloe aristada); a Cotyledon batesii, (Villadia batesii), and a bunch of airplane/spider plant babies. I have potted several of them, but not all. Some need a stronger root structure first. When I feel better, I will upload some photos of these.

I almost forgot the bunch of small-leaf spiderwort Liz’ mom, Alicia, gave me. It grows like a weed. I remember growing it when we were first married, but have not seen it since. There will be plenty of it here, for sure.

Oh, I was also given a gorgeous white geranium at the quinceañera. It is full of unopened blooms that I cannot wait to see. I do not recall ever seeing a white geranium, and have certainly never owned one. Yay for me.

Enough for tonight. I am taking my stuffed up self to bed, and, see if I can sleep. Please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Never more. I just wanted a taste; ended up feeling like s@&t.

I asked for a shot of tequila, and ended up having five more. Normally not a big deal but I have not had any alcohol since the twenty eighth of February.

Today is the quinceañera and I feel awful. If I could go somewhere and vomit, I would. I cannot, however. We are with family. I am sure it is not polite to vomit in public.

I would really appreciate a nap, but not really sure how to swing that without someone noticing.

Fortunately, tomorrow is another day. Thank God. I am determined to live through this. And, while I do, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

I will tell you that this post will be explicit, and, definitely not for the faint of heart.

We were honored, and, grateful, to be given the opportunity to watch a pig being slaughtered for the celebration of a quinceañera, to be held tomorrow, all day.

The quinceañera, for those that are unfamiliar with the word, is the “coming out” party for fifteen year old girls, here in México, as well as in the States. It is much the same as the “sweet sixteen” parties up North.

Here, however, with a family as large as they are, a whole sow will be gone fairly quickly, I will wager. Here she is, after one, quick knock on the head with the flat side of a hatchet. She was killed quickly, and with many salutations from the people inside the house watching.

Neither of us have ever been witnesses to such an event, although there were several children who had seen a slaughter before. Not a single person turned away from the experience or expressed any sentiment other than thanksgiving. I was very impressed.

Being a very sheltered city girl, I grew up knowing almost nothing of the world outside my little life bubble; until I started dating my, now, husband. That was when my real education started.

Ok, here are some of the photos I took. If you do not wish to go further, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones. For the rest of you, here goes.

This first photo is minutes after the sow was killed. Hence the saying, “bleeding like a stuck pig”. Really, though, she was unconscious when the farmer cut her throat.

The first thing they did was pour boiling water over her to soften the skin, and hair.

They spent at least fifteen minutes shaving off all of her hair around her body; even on her ears. Every inch, actually.

The next thing they did was take her feet.

After all of the hair was removed, the head removed, they opened the body, removed the internal organs, and proceeded to hang her up for a bit.

That was the last photo I took because we left after this. I will not be able to describe the smell, however. Blood has such a distinct odor; it is more than just sulfur. It is memorable, however.

That is a bit of what we were privileged to witness, and will let you know the end results tomorrow.

For those of you that wanted to know where your bacon comes from, besides the plastic cryo bag from the store, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Again.

Someone is still overwatering our plants. I have someone in mind who I believe to be a suspect, but I am not going to accuse anyone outright. Now, it is the airplane plant.

I got up this morning, checked the plants, and found that the airplane plant looked a bit peaked. Being the good gardener that I am, I gave it a bit of water, before using the water meter to check it.

There. I said it. I watered the plant. Ok? I did it. I confess.

Now, since then, I have removed the plant from the dunk tank, and repotted it into three different planters. It, as it has turned out, is actually three plants. I had forgotten. That will give them at least a thirty percent chance of survival. I hope.

There were three plants in the pot, so I have said, so I placed each into its own planter, and given each only a quarter cup of water. That is all; no more for the next few days. I am hopeful I acted quickly enough to save them from the wicked waterer.

Until I catch the bugger, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

As far as I can tell, the starter still lives.;

As do the plants. Well, and, for the last time, the schefflera is gone. Gone, but, obviously not forgotten.

It is a trauma, to be sure, however, not the first, nor the last. And, I will forget it, once the new cuttings get going.

Back to the starter; it is behaving just as a new starter should. It bubbles after being fed, inflates for a few hours, then deflates; waiting to be fed, once again.

It smells like paste, the kind one makes for homeschooled children. It smells like flour. Yuck. That is one of the things I miss about the mature starter; that lack of acidity to the smell. No difference when making a roux; if you do not cook it long enough, it, too, smells, and tastes like “just flour”. Yuck.

Time, and patience, is what this newest starter needs. I happen to have, as far as I can tell, a bit of both at present. I do believe the Lord is trying to teach me about patience; showing me that watering my plants too often, wanting them to grow before my eyes, is just a form of impatience.

I have listened, and have adjusted my practice; I no longer water all of the plants every morning. Duh!!! I have the philodendrons, the peace lily, and the airplane plants, all in the spare bedroom, as far away from me as they can be. Now that they are looking quite lovely, and healthy, and, now that I have stopped drowning them, I can take pride in knowing that they live. I have not killed them, and they are happy(ier).

The very small Sansevierias are all showing new offshoots, so they are all doing well, too. The palms are both upright, so, a good note there, as well. I have ordered six African violets, but will be receiving nine, as the order was delayed from Colima, six hours East of here. They asked if, by not cancelling my original order for six, would I accept having them send nine plants. Well, heck yes, I accept. I can find plenty of space for violets.

I wish you could have seen the violet I left up North. It was gorgeous. Once I learned to water it from the bottom, sitting in a saucer of water for fifteen minutes, weekly, it took off like wild fire. It was healthy, deep purple, with leaves that looked like velvet.

This company is sending a mix of colors; pink, purple, white, and yellow, I believe. I have never seen, personally, any other color than purple, so we shall see. I just hope they get here before we go to LA again. I would have for them to sit in a box for four days and nights.

When we get back, I will let you know how that all transpired. I am taking one of the Sansevierias for Jesús’ mom in exchange for the airplane plants she gave me. This way she will not have to worry about watering it very often. She is too busy a woman to have another mouth to feed.

That said, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

While over at our cousin’s house the other day, I asked if I could take a few cuttings from one of the plants in their garden.

Hah! It is a schefflera!! This one is all green, though, the one I drowned was variegated. I have put them, there are three, (making their chances of survival that much greater), in a couple of inches of water. Hopefully, they will take root, and let me make up for killing their cousin. We shall see.

I, also, cut the top of the rubber tree off, and am going to try to root it in water. If that does not work, I will buy another one, larger, and, take better care of it. As gentle as I was with the repotting, it was too traumatized to survive.

I will be right back; I have forgotten to feed my starter.

There. Job well done. Where was I? Oh, right; the true confessions of a serial plant killer. How could I forget?

The photo, just above, shows that, after about two weeks, it has successfully, established roots on the cut end of a Sansevieria trifasciata, or, more commonly known as, a mother in laws tongue. They grow prolifically, here; outside, they can even grow into a low growing fence. I, however, am only looking for symmetry.

The plant we have is/was quite tall, about four and a half feet tall. I have since cut off most of the “tongues”, and am rooting them, like the one in the photo. When they have all gotten roots, I will plant them, in plastic containers, and place them in the outer sections of the window box; several on each side. I think it will be fairly dramatic. I will show you when we get there.

As we wait, patiently, of course, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Whenever we go to Los Altos, one of the first things we notice is ….

Well, first there are all of the cerros; I would call them large hills, or, maybe, small mountains. I do not know what the most accurate translation is, sorry, but, they are just that, small mountains. And, they are everywhere one looks.

Another thing is the open expanse of land. There are miles from the highway to the cerros, that are dotted with cacti, shrubs, small buildings, and the like. Many times we see small hovels that once housed a family, or, maybe, an abandoned business; still standing, but unused, at present.

Along the road, families have set up lean to’s, selling pecans, sometimes prepared food, and, even, corn on the cob, or off the cob. The thing I notice, maybe more than our traveling companions, is that those people, selling their wares, all seem to be smiling; as if they do not have a care in the world.

Sometimes, the folks have masks on, though that is not the norm. The air, there, is fresh, and, breezey; clean of pollutants, and CoVid19. Taking in a deep breath of clean, sweet smelling air, there, is, well, memorable.

It is as if we take a small trip back in time, just a bit; it is more primitive, if you will, than here, in the city. Well worth the time getting there.

Noise; there is none. Well, perhaps, not none, as there are the sounds of people moving along the streets, cars tooting a friendly “hello/hola” to everyone. Because it is a small town of about five hundred inhabitants, most people know each other. How special! But, it really cannot be considered as noise.

There is not the constant droning of machinery, equipment, construction, the Metro, the loud mufflers of the buses, cars honking, dogs barking, like here, in the city. It is peaceful, tranquil, and, quiet.

We go back as often as we can, when Jesús gets a vacation day, that is. We stay at J’s parents home, and are thankful for it. They feed us, and put us up for however many days, and nights, we can stay. Coming up, soon, we will be staying four nights ,and three days; plenty of time to decompress. It is a wonderful, relaxing time, shared with our new family, and friends. It is also the quinceñera of one of J’s cousins. Should be fun.

Please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.